The village was full of life, illuminated by lights, fires, and full of sounds of people talking. Children running around, merchants selling food at local stands, and everyone at the community there. The sky itself was alight with its own fireworks and a few watched dazzled by the various colors. Kiba, himself, was sitting on top of a tea shop, admiring the scene below him. He held his sword high, seeing it reflect a bit of the fireworks. He jumped down landing perfectly on his feet. He didn't have much to do other than maybe drink and pick a fight later on. He turned to see a shorter girl coming up to him with two skewers of dango in hand.

Kaiyo walked up to Kiba with a slightly sour look on her face. "Geez Kiba if I knew you were going to hang out on the roof all night, I would have just asked you to stay home." She sighed, shaking her head and handing him on the skewers. "Now you owe me." She tugged on his yutaka, moving him towards one of the booths.

Michiru fussed with her yukata and the pin that was on her head. Uncomfortably squirming, she wasn't very fond of wearing traditional garb all the time. Her preference was for more looser clothes that were easier to run in. Her parents and especially her older brother encouraged her to attend the festival because it was just that - tradition for the family to do so. Not to mention that this came but only a few times per year. "Raaaaaain, why do I have to go?" she whined.

"But Michi, the festival's fun. Besides, you might get to meet someone for once," her brother, Rain teased. Michiru was pretty antisocial, compared to her brother, who was quite confident and easygoing. "Hey I'll buy you some takoyaki and ikayaki if you like," he continued, trying to convince her. "I don't get you - you used to like coming to the festival when we were kids."

"Exactly. Festivals are for little kids, and we most certainly aren't at that age anymore," Michiru retorted.

Rain sighed. "It's not just for kids, look, Mom and Dad are going. Look around you, there's people our age around too," he motioned. True, there were many adults around, but Michiru seemed annoyed that there were children running around and being loud.

"This really isn't my thing, though," the younger sister protested. Either way, she was being dragged out into the village whether she liked it or not.

Kiba walked around with Kaiyo, looking at the random things on the stands. He found a sword shop among one of those stands, rushing over and admiring the work. One of the swords were out on display, the silver glinting in the moonlight with the engraving of the blacksmith's name. He bit his lip, knowing that it was most likely priceless and that he had too much of a conscience in order to steal it. He felt himself being pulled by his friend to a different stand. "Aw come on Kai, I was just window shopping!"

Kaiyo felt bored at the shop, preferring fans as weapons instead if any. She knew that look on his face, the one that meant he loved something to death. Then again that happened whenever he saw something "shiny". She tugged on his sleeve, getting him away before he could become more attached to the thing. "Sure you were. Anyway we didn't come to the festival in order for you to go around and check out shiny objects."

"Yeah, we didn't. You came out of your own accord and dragged be here." Kiba sulked a bit as they walked, him almost dropping his skewer of dango as a train of kids ran by his feet. He twitched, slightly irked, but couldn't do anything about it.

Kaiyo looked at Kiba sighing. Did he ever get out for anything bu a fight? She shook her head, as they kept going. She saw two people, a guy and girl walking together, not saying anything, but lightly tapping on Kiba's shoulder. "Hey look, some other people are here too." She pointed to the two.

"Yes, lots of people are here, hence the slight claustrophobia." Kiba said this sarcastically as he looked in the direction that Kaiyo pointed in.

"Just for tonight?" he continued, trying to convince his sister to agree. "Please?"

Michiru scoffed, still struggling to adjust her yukata to be more comfortable, which would result in more of it slipping around. "Hold ON!" she hissed, running towards a tree to hide behind and try to fix the traditional robe. "Wait till I say so and then retie my obi for me, okay?" she instructed.

Rain smiled. "Does this mean you're going?" he asked, arms folded.

"Yes, now can you PLEASE shut up and help me over here?" She held her yukata tight, even though she had other clothes underneath, and outstretched her arm with her obi in hand for her brother to help tie back.

"All right, hold on." He made his way toward the tree and took the tie from his sister, wrapping it around her and tying it so that she would be able to breathe. "There. Done. Now let's go?" He grabbed Michiru's hand and led the way back to the festival.

Reluctantly, she had to follow. Michiru didn't want to be shown dragged along the ground, but she was quite clumsy in her sandals, struggling to keep her balance. "Rain!! Slow down," she commanded. She could tell her brother was quite enthused about this festival, and felt an oncoming headache.

Kaiyo rolled her eyes. "Do you really not want to meet people here?"

Kiba shook his head. "No, I want to meet people. I want to meet that person who was selling the sword." He felt himself being dragged to a more general weapons shop full of naginatas, fans, daggers, and other weaponry.

Kaiyo sighed, dragging him to a different weapons shop, admiring the handiwork of the person who designed one of the fans. It was a deep scarlet color with a lighter red design of wind wisping and the stitching gold in color. She played around with the fan, testing out the hooked blades with her fingers. She closed up the fan, seeing the price tag for it.

"Not enough for your prized weapon?" Kiba touched some of the other weapons, particularly interested in the "rapier" brought from the west. It was thin and dull on the side, but was good for stabbing. He put the sword back in the sheath, tugging on Kaiyo's sleeve. "Let's go before I can call hypocrite on you."

He started looking around. "Anything in particular you wanna buy besides food?" he asked. He looked towards a weapons shop, where two other people seemed to be admiring the merchandise there. He considered buying an umbrella sword for his sister, and a katana for himself, but it didn't seem necessary at the time.

"Mm, not really," she scowled. Her brows were furrowed, looking around at all the booths. Nothing exactly caught her interest. There were clothes, the usual catch-a-goldfish booth, some other games, artisan crafts that Michi didn't really need. "Rain, are you serious about this? Most of this stuff isn't anything we're gonna end up buying." Shopping for her was useless. Not that she was spoiled, it's just that she never wanted anything, or anyone to buy her anything.

Rain decided he might as well buy her a present while she wasn't looking. Sure, his sister's room at home was sparsely decorated with only basic elements. His parents told him to try to get his sister interested in something at the fair, because she rarely let herself enjoy anything. 'If I leave her alone and I try to get a present for her, she might run off back to home, but if I take her everywhere with me, there's no way I can get her something without her knowing it,' he thought to himself. 'Maybe her ideals were way too high for something, but Rain couldn't place his finger on it.

She folded her arms, "So have you ever met a girl you're particularly interested in, Big Brother?" she asked, trying to spark something for conversation between herself and her sibling. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two people standing at the same weapons booth that her brother had just been looking at, but made no comment. Swords were not part of her interest, and neither was duelling.

"No, not yet. Why do you ask?"

"Oh...no reason. I was just wondering." Michiru started wandering off in the opposite direction, hearing her brother protest in frustration.

Kiba walked out of the booth with Kaiyo close behind as they looked for another point of interest. Really it was the same as any other generic festival. He felt tempted to go to the catch-a-fish booth, but knew that he would most likely leave the fish to die.

Kaiyo ran out, going ahead of Kiba, wondering what would get Kiba's interest. He susually was a social person, but only in battle or with people he knew well enough. She, herself was sort of outgoing, though needing some sort of security blanket of friends to fall back on. She looked around, finding a booth full of wooden toys, but didn't go there, knowing she might spend a lot of her money.

Kiba fished for money in his pocket, finding a surprisingly large amount of bills and coins. He wasn't sure where he had found all that money, but figured that it was from weeks of collection. Unfortunately he couldn't spend it on the sword without being stopped. He took out his current sword, twirling around on his wrist before catching it again. He almost swung the thing at Kaiyo, though catching it a moment sooner.

Kaiyo flinched, looking peeved when she saw Kiba with the sword, but then sighed. "This is why I won't let you buy the sword. You'd probably kill someone with it before you transaction was finished."

Kiba crossed his arms, sheathing the sword. "I resent that. You know I only kill out of self defense." That was partially true since he did have the occasional relapse, but he was fine for the festival.

"Hey, wait up Michiru!" Rain called out, following her.

She went outside of the festival, just to sit on some rocks at the lake. It was almost peaceful, for her at least. She watched the fireworks going on at a safe distance.

Rain scratched his head. "Are you just gonna stay here the whole time? I thought we were gonna hang out at the festival for the evening."

"Whatever," Michiru replied, not really paying attention to what her brother said. "Look, I'll go when I go. You can go do whatever you want over there," she argued.

'There's just no arguing with this girl, is there?' It was a rhetorical question, one that didn't need to be answered. "Okay then. I'll come back and check on you later." He turned, with another slight look at his sister, and walked back into the array of tents and booths.

((Any idea how our characters will meet?))

Kaiyo giggled. "Sure, let's go with that." She whipped her head around, deciding to go and catch some fish. She knew that she'd sooner cook them than raise them, but it was a fun waste of money.

Kiba saw her walk over to the fish catching booth, lagging along behind. When he finally got there, he saw Kaiyo staring at the fish before finally trying to get a catch.

Kaiyo cursed when the paper broke under her fish. "Dammit!" She sighed, pursing her lips. "So close too." She turned around behind him, seeing Kiba there. Was he laughing? It was hard to tell, but she had known him long enough to read between the lines. "And I suppose you can do better?"

Kiba gave her a straight face, though secretly laughing a bit. He shook his head at Kaiyo before scooting onto the seat. "Doubt it, but I like to waste my money." He hovered over the tank of fish, selecting one in his mind before moving his arm downward and fishing one out. Unfortunately, the same thing happened to Kiba as it did Kaiyo. He stood up sighing.
((Hm, well I was thinking that they meet at one of the booths or by running into each other.))

Michiru waited until she couldn't hear Rain's footsteps anymore. She sighed. "Finally, he's gone." She kicked off her sandals and dipped her feet into the cool water that the rock she sat on was in close proximity to. "Cold, but refreshing. Better than this summer heat we've been having so far." Her eyes still followed the fireworks that were being set off, probably once every few minutes, she figured.

If she actually dove into the lake, her brother, as well has their parents, would be furious.

Rain figured he might as well buy the snacks for his sister first, so that's what he ended up doing. Looking towards the goldfish booth while eating a piece of takoyaki on a stick, he wandered over to the two people that were struggling to catch a goldfish.

"Hm...this looks find. Mind if I have a go at it?" he asked the booth operator. The owner nodded, and Rain gave him payment for a round of trying. He put his sister's food into a pouch that he carried, so as to hold the paper net and a regular one. His eyes watching closely, Rain tried to scoop one up. He did, but before he could catch it in the regular net, the paper broke and his jaw dropped. "Naaaaw...I almost got that one. Oh well," he said, laughing off his bad luck.

Kiba shrugged it off, moving over so that the guy could catch a fish. He wondered if anyone was here with him. He watched as the boy was trying to catch a fish. He laughed a bit when the paper broke under the fish. "Yeah, well it's better than my luck."

Kaiyo looked at the boy with a bit of interest, wondering the same thing as Kiba. She looked at him, observing his features before speaking. "So, you here with anyone or just being a loner?"

"Heh," he replied. "I'm actually here with my sister, but she's over at the lake by herself. Apparently, festivals aren't much of her thing. Anyway, I'm Rain. And you two are?"

She looked up at the sky. It was pretty stupid, just relaxing like this, but she leaned back on the rock, bored. "I don't wanna go into that crowd yet. What am I gonna do there at the festival?"

Kiba looked at him nodding. He had to agree with his sister on not wanting to be in festivals, though has got them down to a tolerable level. "Kiba. I'm not into festivals either."

"Really? My name's Kaiyo, I had to drag Kiba over here to the festival." Kaiyo said this half-jokingly even though it was true. At least they were able to meet someone new and almost win a fish.

Rain chuckled towards Kiba. "You'd probably get along with Michiru then. Anyway, I've never seen you two around before. You live around here?" he asked.

Michiru got bored pretty easily by herself, almost drifting to sleep on her rock that she laid on but instantly snapped back into consciousness. She put her slippers back on and headed back to the festival looking around for Rain.

Kiba shrugged nonchalantly, looking at Rain. "Sort of, though I tend to travel sometimes." Michiru? Was that his sister or something?

Kaiyo laughed. "So Michiru's unsocial and has to be dragged out too?" SHe ignored the glare from Kiba and instead answered Rain's question. "Yeah I do, though I'm on the outskirts of town."

"Unsocial? Yeah I guess you could say that. Our parents wanted me to take her out just for tonight so she could at least try and have a good time." He smiled when Kaiyo told him that they lived just outside of the town. "Really? We live just outside of town too, in the east. How about you?"

Just then, a shivering Michiru came back into the rounds of the festival tents heading towards the central bonfire to warm herself up, when she saw her brother with the same people they'd seen at the armory tent earlier. "Rain?" She slowly walked up to her brother. "Didn't know you'd still be at the goldfish booth," she said.

"Oh hey, Michi. Yeah I just happened to meet Kaiyo and Kiba here. They live outside of the town too."

Michi was quite shy, hugging herself against her kimono, but also still feeling chilly. "H-hi. Nice to meet you," she said, weakly smiling.

Kaiyo shook her head. "Nah, over in the south." She looked over at the new girl that came around. She waved politely, observing her features. "Nice to meet you too." She smiled warmly.

Kiba shrugged, not saying much. Most of it was said by Kaiyo already. He looked at Rain's sister, finding a small resemblene between them. He waved lazily. "Same here."

"Nice. I heard it's got some of the prettiest girls there," Rain smiled, trying to play up with his charm, not quite knowing if Kaiyo and Kiba were blood-related or otherwise. "How long are you stayin' around for the fair?"

"So...um...are you brother and sister, too?" Michiru asked next. She was quite unsure of what to say towards people she just met, and thus, was only close to her immediate family and a few relatives that lived in town as well.

Kiba laughed. "Well some are." He shrugged at Rain before answering. "I'm just here until I get bored."

Kaiyo pouted at Kiba before looking back at Rain. "Actually we might stay here through the whole festival."

Kiba rolled his eyes. Would there really be that much to do to spend the whole time there? He doubted that. HOpefully Kaiyo would get bored before he did. "Cousins."

"Cousins, huh? Ah, well, that's still cool. We should move towards the bonfire where it's warmer though," he suggested. "They're playing music over there too...I think some of the people are dancing," he laughed, wanting to join in the fun that was a short distance away.

"Really? I'd wanna leave early too...there's nothing entertaining here." Michiru admitted to Kiba. "Have you found anything of interest at all though? I haven't."

Rain remembered the stuff he bought for Michiru. "Oh yeah, I got you some of your snacks if you want 'em," he said, pulling out the small container, which was really just paper wrapped around the food. At least it was resourceful.

"Oh, nice," she smiled. "Thanks, Rain. Here, have some!" she offered to Kaiyo and Kiba happily.

"Yeah, good idea." Kaiyo walked, giggling a bit. Dancing sounded fun despite whether or not she knew how.

"Agreed. The only thing I've found that I've liked is a sword. A sword that she keeps keeping me away from." Kiba resisted the urge to glare or sulk while Kaiyo had rolled her eyes to him. Maybe he could sneak away during the festivities.

"Thanks a lot." Kaiyo grabbed one of the snacks, unwrapping the paper and taking a bite into it.

"Much thanks." Kiba did the same, though didn't take as big of a bite as Kaiyo.

"It's good, isn't it?" Rain grinned, taking out his portion and eating it. "A sword, huh?" he said. "That's pretty cool." Not into weapons himself, he was into fencing, and that was about it. "Come on, let's get closer to the dance ring. We can hang out there" he motioned, walking forward.

Michiru hesitated as her brother walked off. "I apologize. My brother can be a little abrupt..." she trailed off. "But he's really nice," she faltered, trying to make light conversation with Kaiyo and Kiba.

Kiba nodded, taking another bite out of his snack. He shrugged at Rain, though still followed him. He wasn't much of a dancer, but if the time came he could improvise or maybe sneak out. He shook his head at Michiru. "It's fine."

"Yeah it is." Kaiyo walked along, though shot a look at Kiba. The reason that she didn't want Kiba to spend all that money on the sword was because she knew that he was the kind of person who would live on cheap food for a month if it meant getting whatever it was that he had happened to want. "It's okay. I'd like to be nearer to the dance ring myself."

"I don't dance well though. Do you?" Michiru asked Kaiyo. She figured bonding with a girl would be easier on herself than trying to make friends with a guy, especially one that seemed to be disinterested in anything else that she or Rain would talk about. As they walked on, she felt a teeny less awkward, but still didn't know what else to day.

((Any idea how guys hang out with each other?))

He turned to Kiba who was following him. "So...Kiba is it? How do you like the festival?" Rain asked "Well...I'm guessing you're not that into it since you seem like you've got something else to do." Rain didn't want to seem condescending. "Eh, I mean, you know, town festivals aren't really your thing either. So what are you into then?"

((Not at the moment sorry))
Kaiyo smiled, nodding. "Yeah I do, well sort of." She knew that she had a lot of room to improve in dancing, but she found it to be fun when she was dancing with others. Michiru seemed pretty friendly as well as Rain, both being siblings it must have been more comfortable for them. Of course Kiba was being well him. She knew that he would loosen up though.

"Eh, I guess it's okay." Kiba shrugged. He felt himself loosening up more. He glanced at the sky for a minute before looking back down. "I guess I'm more into sword fighting and traveling around for the most part. Anything you're interested in?"